The first surprise is the attitude. A house rabbit doesn't fit around your life. It quietly redraws the floor plan. That cable behind the sofa? Reassigned. The corner of the rug? Under review. The cardboard box you meant to recycle? Now a castle, with a door chewed exactly to size.
For a long time, rabbits were treated as starter pets, kept alone in a hutch at the bottom of the garden and forgotten once the novelty wore off. That picture is changing. More people now share their homes with rabbits who roam freely indoors, use a litter tray and hold very firm views on breakfast.
Live with one and you learn a new language. A thump of the back foot means alarm, or occasionally deep offence at being picked up. A firm nudge of the nose means move, you're in the way. A gentle grinding of the teeth, a little like a purr, means contentment. And then there is the binky: a sudden leap into the air with a twist of the body and a flick of the back legs, performed for no obvious reason beyond the sheer pleasure of being a rabbit. The first time you see one, you laugh out loud. The hundredth time, you still do.
Rabbits are social creatures and usually happiest with a companion of their own kind. Spend an afternoon watching a bonded pair and you'll see them groom each other's ears, flop side by side in a patch of sun and share a pile of hay with the seriousness of diners at a fine restaurant.
They are also prey animals, which shapes everything about how they trust. A rabbit who chooses to stretch out flat beside you, back legs kicked out behind, eyes half closed, is paying you a considerable compliment. Getting there takes patience. Most rabbits dislike being lifted and carried, and the bond tends to grow at floor level, slowly, on their terms.
What do people gain? Ask rabbit owners and the answers are rarely grand. A gentle presence at the end of the working day. The sound of hay being munched in the next room. A small, determined face appearing at the door of the home office to inspect your progress.
And a newfound respect for cable covers.
Sources: RSPCA, rabbit care and behaviour